Imagining gender equality in the fantasy world

Main menu

Post navigation

Muppet sequel in 2014, Miss Piggy as Minority Feisty

A new Muppet movie is coming out in 2014. On Disney’s site for the movie, the characters listed are Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Animal, Fozzy the Bear, Gonzo the Great, and Walter. So here we have a typical gender ratio in children’s media of 1:5. Females, half of the kid population, are once again, presented as a minority. Miss Piggy is a Minority Feisty.

Make that 1:6. The human star of the movie is Ricky Gervais.

In case you forgot, here’s the poster your kids got to see for the 2011 movie.

When females are marginalized and sidelined in a fantasy world created for children (not to mention creatures from a world that originated on PBS) how can we expect them to get equality in the real world? If we can’t even imagine it, how can we achieve it?